TheBig donors

More than $4 billion: That's how much experts anticipate have been spent trying to win your vote. It's the most expensive election in U.S. history. With the Supreme Court ruling on Citizens United in 2010, the floodgates opened, allowing outside groups to spend record amounts: more than $970 million for this election cycle alone. Who exactly spent this kind of money may surprise you. Election spending doesn't just come from hedge-fund managers and people with big family fortunes anymore. It's an eclectic group: a 21-year-old college student is spending his inheritance on his own conservative super PAC, a man with a species of monkey named for him, an expert in heirloom plants, a speech recognition expert who spends his free time playing with model trains in his basement. Check out these fascinating people and the nonprofits that placed a big bet on this election.

Individual donorsDonors spent record amounts on Super PACs, which are legally allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts as long as they don't donate directly to the candidate or coordinate with their campaigns. Corporations, individuals, unions, and associations can all contribute. Donors are disclosed to the FEC.

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BundlersThese are some of the presidential candidates' $1 million-plus bundlers. Bundlers are people who, after giving their personal contribution limit, then ask friends for checks which they can give to candidates in one big "bundle."

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501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) groupsKnown as "shadow" or "dark" money groups because they are not required to disclose who funds them, these organizations spent record amounts on ads, "non-political" activities and "issue advocacy" which are not clearly defined but generally relate to promoting specific candidates in the election.